Daniel Gross makes an interesting point in this column on the American gaming industry:
The Las Vegas economy is looking more like that of America as a whole - driven by discretionary consumer spending on clothes, entertainment, and food. And as a result, this city that has defined itself as being outside the mainstream will increasingly be constrained by the quotidian macroeconomic factors that drive housing and retail markets across the country: interest rates, employment growth, and disposable income. At the same time, the rest of the country is starting to look more like Las Vegas. As the strip fills up with condos and veteran casino operators tout their malls and variety shows, Native American tribes and states are seeking to provide local residents with gaming options. California now has 55 Indian casinos, whose combined haul now rivals that of Las Vegas. Kansas this year passed a law allowing for the potential opening of four state-owned casinos. In Massachusetts, where the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe wants to build a casino, Gov. Deval Patrick in September offered a plan to bring three destination resorts to the state, including one in Boston. The historic wellsprings of Prohibition and Puritanism, respectively, are now taking economic cues from Sin City.
Legalized forms of American gambling now constitute a $91 billion a year industry, which Gross says is the equivalent of Egypt's gross domestic product. More interesting, however, is the change in American society to which Gross gestures in his piece. The introduction of gaming into states where it has been banned historically may make those states freer, maybe even more fun. But legalized gaming also brings with it numerous costs, including organized crime, addiction, and corruption. There's a saying that nothing in politics is as good or bad as it may seem. The same holds true for social and cultural change. A United States of America that is slowly turning into a continent-spanning version of Las Vegas may be freer, richer, and more expressive for some. But it will also impoverish and diminish those who find themselves ensnared in the newly fashioned webs of ancient social pathologies.